Tips for a Stress-Free Holiday {#NYTough #Giveaway}

Reduce your holiday stress with some easy tips to make your celebration an enjoyable and memorable one for years to come.

This is a sponsored conversation on behalf of P&G. All opinions are as always my own.

The holidays are right around the corner and if you are hosting this year I have a pretty good feeling stress levels are rising, especially if you are one of the many who live in a tiny apartment.

I know, I’ve been there, from Chanukah parties with my (very large) family to the one year I hosted all the Christmas orphans for a very Jewish Christmas and made Chinese food from scratch. The prepping, the cleaning, the cooking, the cleaning again, it takes a big toll and sometimes as the host it can be difficult to enjoy your own party.

If you happen to be a New Yorker you might have noticed some advertisements on the subway the last few weeks of a campaign called #NYTough. Curious what it’s all about? Well, for starters, we New Yorkers are tough, besides the daily subway commute, the walking through tourists in Times Square to get to work, we routinely drag home grocery bags that weigh up to 20 pounds or sit and wash dishes for days in our dishwasher-less apartment. Also raise your hand if you’ve carried that month load of laundry down 4 flights of stairs, out the door, down the block to the laundromat and back up again when it’s all be done?

Been there, done that, I will never live in a walk up again.

New Yorkers are tough but I bet some of you have been there before. Let’s make life a little less tough with a few tips to reduce for a stress-free holiday (and hey you can probably apply some to every day life too)!

1. Make that party prep list 2 weeks in advance. Yes, sometimes we New Yorkers run by the seat of our pants but trust me on this one. Make your menu, make your grocery list, make a to-do of things that need to be done in the apartment up until your party. You’ll thank yourself.

2. Prep. Prep. Prep. When’s the last time you used your glassware? Been awhile? Wash ahead of time and dry with Bounty, it won’t leave any lint on the glasses or water spots from your dish rack. Same goes with cooking ahead, make those dips, cut the vegetables for your crudite, bake the cookies. If it can be made ahead, just do it.

3. Clean – this is a tough one, most of us don’t have the luxury of a cleaning service, so cleaning falls on the spouse/roommate/partner. Throwing that party by yourself? Then the 20 minute clean is your friend, hide the junk, wipe down your surfaces and do a quick sweep. If you are like me and have a dog that sleeps on every couch surface then you need Febreze. I might love the corn chip scent he gives off (and might leave on the couch) but does your friend? Probably not. Febreze it away. Plus, it takes care of your cooking smells and your neighbors, we’ve all been there.

4. Cook simple foods and say yes when someone asks to bring something. Don’t let the burden of providing everything fall on you. If someone asks if they can bring something say yes and tell them what you need. If it’s a bottle of wine, so be it, if it’s an extra bag of chips, then that’s what you need too. Pinterest is your friend for finding easy party appetizers.

5. Last but not least, enjoy yourself, let cleaning part 2 wait until the next day. Those dirty dishes aren’t going anywhere, just give a good hot soak in Dawn and the stuck on food will come right off.

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Now that the party tips are settled, let’s win something! P&G is offering up a $55 value prize pack to keep you going through 2015 and showing off how #NYTough you are! All of us could use a little extra, Bounty, Dawn, Febreze, Tide and a $25 AMEX gift card in our lives anyway, right?

To enter is simple, just fill out the PromoSimple widget below. This giveaway runs from 12/21/14 through 12/31/14 11:59EST. U.S. Residents only, aged 18+ may enter the giveaway. 1 winner will be selected at random and notified via email in which they have 48 hours to respond, at that time a new winner will be selected.